


difference between a Dream and a dream

by Amelia_Friend



Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid, Nightmare Time - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, the only nightmare time spoiler is Pamela's name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:29:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27223528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amelia_Friend/pseuds/Amelia_Friend
Summary: Pamela Foster wasn't always just Hannah and Lex's mother.She used to have dreams.After she meets Wilbur Cross she has Dreams too.
Relationships: Pamela Foster/Wilbur Cross
Kudos: 18





	difference between a Dream and a dream

Pamela Foster was going to be someone.

Pamela Foster was not going to be one of _them_.

Them who are born, live, and die in one town for their entire life.

Barely ever leaving the state, let alone the country.

No. Pamela Foster has plans.

Pamela Foster has dreams.

She's going to be a writer.

She's going to move to New York, or she doesn't even care where, as long as it's as far from the tiny town of Hatchetfield as she can possibly get.

And she's only seventeen but she _knows_ everything is going to turn out well for her.

* * *

She meets him by accident.

(It's probably an accident.)

(She thinks it's an accident.)

She's knows everyone in Hatchetfield.

He's not from Hatchetfield.

He's tall and dark and handsome.

He's new and different and exciting.

He's twenty eight.

He's a major.

(But not in the army.)

(It's secret.)

(He can't tell her.)

(He tells her with a wink.)

He's Wilbur Cross.

And he likes her?

She likes him too?

She thinks she likes him.

She's never liked anyone … like this … before.

But he makes her laugh.

He makes her smile.

He makes her feel loved.

(No one has ever loved her before)

Hatchetfield is a special place.

He tells her.

And you – little lady.

You are the most special person in it.

* * *

The nightmares are nothing new.

She's had them for as long as she can remember.

The monsters.

The screaming.

But she's never really remembered them.

A brief moment in the dark.

Driven away by the dreams of the day.

She doesn't really have time for dreams right now.

She has school and work and Wilbur.

Writing takes a back seat.

She'll work on it eventually.

But they're getting worse.

She closes her eyes and it's all she sees.

She sees the tentacles.

She sees the eyes.

She sees the mouths.

And the laughter.

The never ending laughter.

She almost prefers the screams.

They fade when he's nearby.

The first night she slept by his side is the first night she's slept through since she met him.

She spends every night she can by his side.

Anything to keep the nightmares away.

He's certainly not complaining.

* * *

He doesn't tell her he's leaving.

He just leaves.

He's there, and then he's gone, and she doesn't know what to do.

She's all alone again.

Except she's not.

Alexandra Foster is born three weeks after what should have been the start of her senior year.

She's not attending.

Alexandra is small. She cries a lot. She _needs_ a lot.

Pamela looks at her and feels nothing.

Pamela looks at her and sees _him_.

She misses him more than she loves her.

(That's probably wrong)

(It's still true)

Pamela feels her dreams start to slip away.

Pamela feels her Dreams start to take hold.

* * *

If the Dream screams don't wake her, Lexie's screams do.

Pamela hasn't slept through the night since Wilbur left.

She just wants to sleep.

She wants to sleep without the Dreams.

She can dull the Dreams.

She finds out by accident.

She can dull the Dreams.

She just need to drink the Dreams away.

She's not a bad parent.

The Dreams would make her a bad parent.

She's not a bad parent.

* * *

Lexie is four.

She's twenty two.

She can buy her own drinks now.

She can sleep now.

Mostly.

She sees him across the street.

Just a second.

He hasn't changed.

She has.

He finds her.

It's not difficult.

She's still working in the same place she was last time they met.

I have a place.

He says.

I have to pick up Lexie.

She says.

You have a daughter?

He asks.

_You_ have a daughter.

She corrects.

He smiles.

It's meaner than she remembers.

It's just a trick of the light.

She wants to go to him.

She wants to sleep through the night with no Dreams again.

But there's no one to take Lexie.

And it's not like she could bring Lexie with her.

Right?

Right.

* * *

And then he's there.

He's in her Dream.

It's just like it was Before.

He holds her close.

He holds her so close.

He talks.

He's a colonel now.

He's in charge of all the idiots he complained about the last time.

He's got everything he wanted.

She talks.

She has Lexie.

She has ... work?

She has dreams.

(They're fading.)

(She still remembers them)

He keeps the monsters away.

He keeps the screams away.

He promises to keep them away forever.

There's just one little thing she needs to do first.

She's going to agree.

She's going to do whatever it takes to keep him.

Whatever it takes to keep the Dreams away.

There's a scream.

Not a Dream scream.

A child scream.

Lexie having a nightmare of her own.

Perhaps even a Nightmare of her own.

But it wakes her up.

It wakes her up.

And she wasn't able to agree.

She wanted to agree.

It's the first time Pamela finds herself hating her daughter.

It's not the last.

* * *

He's gone.

She looks for him.

She doesn't find him.

And he's gone.

Again.

And Pamela Foster is left with the Dreams.

* * *

Hannah Foster is born nine months later.

If Lex was small then Hannah is miniscule.

Pamela doesn't love her.

Lex does.

She's five.

But Lex loves Hannah more than Pamela has ever loved anyone.

Pamela can't explain it.

It was just a dream.

It was just a Dream.

It's impossible.

But she looks at the baby.

(Looks at _Hannah_ )

She looks and she sees Wilbur.

She looks and all she sees is Wilbur.

She looks and all she'll ever see is Wilbur.

There will be no one but Wilbur.

It took her this long to realise the difference between a Dream and a dream.

A Dream is real.

The monsters are real.

The screams are real.

Wilbur was real.

Wilbur is gone.

There's a scream.

It might be a baby.

It might be a child.

It might be a Dream.

She drinks.

The dreams are gone.

The Dreams remain.


End file.
